WikiLeaks has republished all the documents, emails and other data from the recent, much publicized Sony hack and the move has not exactly been welcomed by Sony and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America).
Remember the recent Sony hacking scandal that resulted in ‘The Interview’ starring Seth Rogen and James Franco being pulled from theaters everywhere? It was an unprecedented event, the manner in which Sony Pictures Entertainment’s data was breached in a carefully orchestrated hack. This led to resignations, breach of employee privacy, as well as seemingly irreparable damage to the company. Unfortunately for Sony Pictures, the fallout from the hack shows no signs of letting up.
WikiLeaks has just made it easier for everyone to access the hacked data by making all the documents, emails and other data ‘fully searchable’ with their own search engine. In doing this, WikiLeaks has made it easier for anyone who is familiar with Google, to have easy access to Sony’s hacked data.
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks’ editor-in-chief, said: “This archive shows the inner workings of an influential multinational corporation. It is newsworthy and at the centre of a geopolitical conflict. It belongs in the public domain. WikiLeaks will ensure it stays there.”
Sony disagreed, accusing WikiLeaks of directly contributing to the damage done by the data theft which it condemned as a “a malicious criminal act.”
“The attackers used the dissemination of stolen information to try to harm SPE (Sony Pictures Entertainment) and its employees, and now WikiLeaks regrettably is assisting them in that effort,” a Sony spokesperson wrote in a statement.
“We vehemently disagree with WikiLeaks’ assertion that this material belongs in the public domain and will continue to fight for the safety, security, and privacy of our company and its more than 6,000 employees.”
Chris Dodd, former Senator and now chairman of the MPAA, spoke out against the republishing of the breached data, as well. “This information was stolen from Sony Pictures as part of an illegal and unprecedented cyberattack,” he wrote in a press statement. “Wikileaks is not performing a public service by making this information easily searchable. Instead, with this despicable act, Wikileaks is further violating the privacy of every person involved.”
WikiLeaks stuck to its guns, adding that the stolen data shed valuable insight on cooperation between active Government agencies and entertainers, as well as management at Sony Pictures.
The new site removes the earlier burden of looking through the entire data breach on the users’ PCs and makes it easier for anyone to look through the data with minimal effort. Due to this, it is entirely plausible that there is new information that hasn’t been publicized before, due to the difficulty of searching through the initial leaks.
A hacking-activist group calling themselves the Guardians of Peace shared the files freely on the internet originally in November last year, via peer-to-peer sharing such as torrents. US intelligence experts insist to this day that the hack was sponsored by North Korea, something that experts worldwide have cast doubt upon.
The finger pointing continues to this day.
